


warming to outcasts, a Valentine's Day tale

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Childhood Memories, Coulson likes to read, Coulson's Mom, F/M, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Male-Female Friendship, Movie Night, Parallels, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, mackelena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-23 15:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9662534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Cousy/Skoulson VDay fic.  Daisy catches Coulson reading a romance novel.





	

She walks into his office in the Z1 and it's not like she's trying to profile him.

It's just her habit to look at her surroundings, take in lots of details.

The habit has been there ever since she was constantly moved around as a kid, from St. Agnes, to foster homes and back.

Holding onto details so she can capture them in whatever fleeting way possible.

And she's been back for a few months, but there's a part of her that always feels like things aren't permanent.

Okay, so thinking about this has made her kind of reflective and sad, but, whoa, what was that?

Coulson opens a drawer in the desk, slides his hand across the desktop, catching a small paperback, and stuffs it quickly into one of the drawers then shuts it.

Look, she knows he's a private person, but why be embarrassed about a book? In such an obvious way?

Is it because he knows she notices things?

Probably.

Besides, it's Coulson. It's likely some detective noir, with the noble loser guy who is an ex-government employee that gets beat up all the time but still does the right thing.

"Wheels up in 10," she tells him, raising her eyebrows. "Wanted to let you know."

"Good. Thank you. Thanks for stopping by."

He seems way too nervous and she thinks about the glimpse she got of the red cover before he put it away.

Those books always have an attractive woman on the cover, because sometimes Coulson likes older versions of things if he can have them.

The yellowed pages and the bent edges looks like it's been read before. Used, like his record collection?

She's solidifying the details in her mind as he starts to fidget with objects on the desk, shuffling at papers while he stands behind it.

"I'll leave you to it, then," she says awkwardly, as he stares back up at her.

The title was a single word, ending in the letter A.

Because his hand was in the way she couldn't see the rest.

  
##

  


"Does Coulson like reading?"

Mack's eyebrows come together and he gives her a strange look.

"You know he does. He reads all the time. What's the real question?" he sighs, and goes back to folding the edges of the paper.

She feels bad, because things aren't tense between her and Coulson, but it's not exactly as it was before.

Mack's spent a lot more time with him in the six months she was gone.

"He was reading in his office on the Z1 the other day."

Mack nods for a moment, and then turns to her. "Why don't you just ask him what he's reading?"

It means, Mack doesn't want to be in the middle of them. Again.

And, fair enough. He's working on his relationship with Elena, she doesn't want to be a burden to him.

"Coulson is private," she replies with a tilt of her head. "We both know that."

"Is that because no one ever asks him? What if he's shy?"

"Coulson's not _that_ shy." She crosses her arms, because Mack is obviously going to make this about her and not about Coulson.

She even tried to Google red novel covers from the 70s that end in the letter A and came up empty handed.

That had no real chance, she knew it when she did it.  She did it anyway.

"Coulson's good at _pretending_ to not be shy," he tells her, as he holds his hand out.

The tape dispenser is next to her, and she pulls off a strip and hands it to him.

Mack is wrapping up a present for Elena for Valentine's Day. Which is totally cute and romantic. And a week away.

It makes her pretty jealous, if she's being honest.

"What if he doesn't want to be asked?"  Of course she knows all about Coulson's walls.   _Literally_.

"Asking myself that right now," Mack sighs.

"Okay, okay," she says, dropping it, and hands him a piece of tape when he gestures at her again.

  
##

She sort of forgets about the book for awhile because of Watchdogs and robots.

Until she's reminded again when everyone goes their own way for Valentine's Day and she's left alone at the base.

Although she had plans to go out so no one would know she had no plans, she kind of lost momentum and stayed behind.

There's lots to be done, of course, but none of it is romantic by any stretch of the imagination.

She finds herself in the gym, barely punching at the sandbag, forgetting the tenderness in her shoulder for a moment.

"Ow." She winces and then stops, rubbing at her shoulder.

Then she hears a shuffling sound near the door, and sees Coulson stop in front of it, to peek inside at her noise.

"I thought you were going out?" he frowns.

"Changed my mind," she groans, rotating her arm in its socket.

Then she sees something in his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asks, with way too much curiosity, moves towards him.

"I was just-" he motions to the hallway, towards the direction of the quarters. "Going to-"

He pauses when she stops in front of him, as she looks down at the book neatly fitted into his hand.

"Get a little _me time_ ," he finishes, with a swallow.

"What are you reading?" she asks, cocking her head to try to look at the title. It's definitely the same book from before.

"This?" he says with a blasé smirk. "Just a book."

"I know what it is," she huffs at him, smiling. "What's it about?"

"Um," he lifts the book and then holds it close to his chest. "Fiction."

Now she has to laugh. "Why are you being so shy about it, Coulson?"

She touches her fingers to his wrist, her voice cajoling him to give up his secret.

"It was my mother's," he whispers, then blinks at her, drawing his lips into a line.

Family stuff. Got it.

  


  
##

Coulson had a good idea after all.

But _she's_ going to have some me time where no one else is likely to look.

She takes her laptop from her room and walks towards the hangar, peering about to make sure that it's quiet, before she pulls on one of the handles of the SUV parked there.

"Hi."

She purses her lips when she finds Coulson already sitting in the backseat, his book in hand, and his knees up against the back of the front seat.

Shaking her head as he turns off the light on his phone, he sits up straight.

"I guess you didn't want to be found, either," she comments.

He starts to say something, but then decides against it and smiles apologetically.

"This is nice," she nods, gesturing towards the backseat. "You totally stole my _me time_ idea."

"It _is_ a good idea," he acknowledges. "They would probably look at least three other places before they found me here."

"I know," she nods, and watches him try to slip the book into the inside of his jacket.

"What's with the book?"

"I already told you-"

"I know you're a private guy," she says, handing her laptop to him, as she slides in next to him then shuts the door. "So, I'm asking."

He sets her laptop down across his lap, and then sighs and hands the book over to her.

She takes in in her hands and looks over the cover and the title.

" _Vida_ ," she says aloud. The image of a woman taking up most of the cover, wearing an armband over her military jacket, and then a man next to her, smaller, but bearded and sort of soft and intellectual looking.

"Is this a romance novel?" she stares up at him.

"Kind of," he admits, and then lifts his hand to turn on the overhead light.

She flips it over to the back cover. "Vida...a symbol of the passionate rebellion...still on the run. Staying in hideouts, disguised, her best protection is her _distrust of everyone?_ " she adds more loudly. "..Now she finds herself warming again toward a man, an outcast ten years younger than herself..."

"That's....what it's about."

He turns the overhead light above them off, settling in silence back against the seat. Did he not want her to see this, because-

"Wait. It's feminist, isn't it?" she asks him, handing the book back.

"Yes," he frowns. "My mom was. She had to be."

  
##

The idea of warming to something again after losing so much is a familiar one.

And one of the scariest things she can still imagine.

When she left SHIELD to get her head on straight, she tried to let go of everything.

He was still in there.

With his kind eyes and his warm voice and how much he cares about her being able to choose.

And now his stupid retro feminist books.

She cracks open a beer and thinks about watching _Gone Girl_ instead.

Then he can find her and ask prying questions or just go run and hide somewhere.

"I'm sorry I make things so difficult."

She practically jumps when she finds him behind her, having crept into the common room while she was distracted.  

She didn't even catch his vibrations.

"No," she replies. "It's-I get it. Really."

"I don't want you to read too much into this," he tells her, holding the book in his hand. "It's just one of the things of hers that I've kept."

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence that you like powerful women in charge of shady organizations."

"My mother wasn't-" he starts with a frown.

"I wasn't talking about your mother," she says with a roll of her eyes, and takes a sip of her beer. "How old were you when you read that? Fifteen?"

"Sixteen," he shrugs. "She left it out on the coffee table after she came home late from her night shift. Fell asleep on the couch."

"And you read it because-"

"There was sex in it," he confesses, with a smirk. "But, it stuck with me. It was about something that, for whatever reason, made sense to me."

He's sharing more than usual. She's eyeing him curiously, wondering what it means.

That he just doesn't want her to worry and think that the book is about them? Or that they're so similar?

"Do you always find yourself warming to outcasts, who are more than-"

"Daisy," he cuts her off, sounding deadly serious now. "Not everything's a joke."

"I'm sorry," she sighs, and sets her beer down on the counter. "I was going to watch _Gone Girl_. For Valentine's Day. Want to join me?"

"Sure," he replies, looking her over with a slowly growing smile.

  


  
##

  
" _Hola_."

Elena ducks her head into their view and Coulson reaches forward to hit pause on the movie.

"What are you both up to?" she demands, crossing her arms.

Daisy can see she's wearing the bracelet that Mack got for her. Which is actual jewelry and not a tracking device.

Mack's directness is one of the things she loves about him.

"Hey, nice bracelet," Daisy says, getting to her knees on the couch and turning around over the back to touch it.

"Mack got it for me," Elena replies, her voice almost sounding like a happy purr, as Daisy fingers the charms attached to it.  A winged foot and a turtle and a pretty red gemstone.

Coulson gets curious and twists his head over to look at it, continuing to eat the popcorn from the bowl in his lap.

"Really?" Mack asks, staring at the screen as he sets the bag of groceries down. "You two are watching _Gone Girl_ on Valentine's Day? Do we need an intervention?"

"I love this film!" Elena says. "Maaack, come on."

"What about dinner?" he tells her, gesturing to the groceries.

She's gone in a flash, putting all of the groceries away before he can say another word.

"After," she stops, now walking slowly around the couch to sit next to Daisy, who scoots over closer to Coulson, who scoots further to make room for Mack.

"Bring more beer!" Daisy calls out to him, and then reaches into the bowl on Coulson's lap for some popcorn, as he stares at her intensely for a moment.

"Why did the two of you come back?" he asks Mack, breaking eye contact with her when he comes to sit down on the couch, holding out the beers gathered in his hands, and a box of candy.

"Thought that it might be nice to have dinner with some friends." He cracks a brief smile and then settles back to get an arm around Elena.

"You mean your single friends," Daisy says, and then tips her beer against his.  "Thanks."

"How far in is this?" Elena asks, taking the box of candy from Mack, opening it and offering to share.

"We can rewind it," Coulson says cheerfully, lifting the remote to do so, then leaning across Daisy to take a chocolate out of the box.

"You look like you want one," he pauses to tease her, just as he's about to put it in his mouth. "You could just ask."

She takes it from between his fingers, then eats it slowly, while he watches.

"Are we starting this, or what?" Mack asks, looking knowingly between them, shaking his head in amusement.

He pushes play.

**Author's Note:**

> The cover of Vida, for the curious.
> 
> https://i0.wp.com/www.tor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/vida-cover.jpg?fit=250%2C%209999&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C413px


End file.
